The Message
by QuintossentialGray
Summary: Noah Bennet and Sylar have been working together over the past months to eliminate the threat of twelve escaped Company detainees. But a message from the future makes Sylar rethink his true purpose and destiny. Why save the World when you can own it?


Two men stood in an alleyway, looking over the fallen corpse of another. One removed his horn-rimmed glasses and wiped them off with a gray handkerchief from his pocket while the other finished his work. There wasn't anything for the thinner man to wipe his hands onto after they became drenched with blood. It was part of their very tentative deal, he helps hunt them…he gets to take It away from them. Pyrokinesis would be a nice ability to add to his collection.

Sylar stood up and glanced at Noah Bennet, nodding quietly as he moved off to practice his newfound ability. Bennet watched him cautiously as he turned the other way and took out his cell phone, dialing a few numbers and pressing it to his ear. It rang chirpily in his ear for a few moments then he smiled a little at the voice on the other end.

"Sandra? I'm fine and I'll be home later tonight…"

A pale hand opened and closed, smirking more and more at the appearance of flames dancing erratically against his skin. Much like cryokinesis when his hands would freeze over…it never hurt to emit the flames or to feel them as he played around with his latest gain. After a few minutes, Noah turned back around and watched Sylar for a moment. Anytime the man got a new ability it was enough to put Bennet on edge. He always kept sedatives on his person whenever he was with the man who would have killed his daughter. Many things had changed since then and Sylar had become much to Noah's dismay, a necessary evil.

For the past few months, they had been tracking and hunting down the Company detainees from level five that had escaped in an unprecedented security breach. Though the distrust of each other was always palpable, the pair worked quite effectively. It was decided early on that merely recapturing them was a fool's errand…they could only find the means to escape again if they had done it successfully once before. No, elimination was the best option and Sylar…more than willing to oblige.

"Now that Jared has been taken care of, I'm flying back to Texas tonight. We'll reconvene when I contact you with information on the next target. Four down…eight to go."

They really were making such excellent progress. Sylar nodded and crosses his arms over the front of his black button-up shirt.

"You know how to find me, Bennet… Give Claire my best."

A devilish grin crossed his lips as he watched for the reaction of his somewhat 'partner'. Noah's face remained impassive, he understood that Sylar was like a little kid trying anything he could to irk other people and get the attention he so craved growing up. Sad, really. But…Claire had no idea who it was that her father was working with to neutralize this latest threat. If he did his job right, she never would.

"Yes I know how to find you, don't do anything stupid and get caught before I can reach—"

Bennet's warning was caught off by the silence imposed with the complete stopping of that moment in time. His mouth was agape, frozen in mid-sentence. Sylar stared for a moment in an instinctive disbelief until that moment passed and he felt a rage boiling up within him. That silly little man…

"Nakamura…I know you're here…"

His former adversary's name growled out throatily as he glanced around quickly, his nerves on fire with the potential to properly payback that little bastard for causing his death…temporary though it was. The thud of footsteps, heavy black boots to be exact, echoed from his side as the figure responsible came forth.

"Not exactly no…but Nakamura did make this all possible."

The figure grinned and chuckled, a cold mechanical laughter as he tilted his head to the side. Sylar looked upon what had to be an impossibility…it was…it was himself. Everything told him it had to be an illusion…how did Petrelli find them again?

"Cute trick Pete…but it's not going to do whatever it was intended to. Now drop the act and let me see your face, or are you really such a coward?"

With the flick of a wrist, Sylar found himself thrown across the rest of the alleyway until his back connected with the brick wall of a dead end. He cried out in pain, groaning as he tried to move again but he couldn't as he was still actively being pinned in place. Sylar watched as the doppelganger came forward, his hand out in a very familiar gesture.

"Also wrong… was I always this stupid?"

A rhetoric question the tall man mused on for a moment then shrugged.

"No…Gabriel…things are exactly as they seem for once. I'm you. Well…what you should be like in five years but you're doing everything in your power to mess it up aren't you?"

At that he drew Sylar's prone form into mid –air away from the wall and slammed him back against it. He groaned and coughed as he stared in shock at what the figure promised his true identity was.

"H-how…how is that even possible?"

Sylar didn't have the ability to travel in time...at least now he didn't. The Sylar from the future smirked at him and adjusted his long black jacket some as he spoke.

"As I said…Nakamura made it possible. His ability is entirely useful…and when I came back here to see how things were progressing after the threat of _two_ Nakamuras had come to my attention…I was very disappointed in what I saw, Gabriel. "

Sylar flinched at the use of his former name, it always got to him being reminded of how weak and low he once was. His twin went on…

"I expected to not find you at all and to have heard the news of the near-death of former Congressman Nathan Petrelli. No…I find out instead that the assassination attempt was just that, an attempt. Petrelli walked away fine and where were you during all of this? Fucking around with the man who you should have killed a very long time ago!"

As Sylar felt the rage of his future self mentally crush his body his thoughts were a mess. What was he talking about…how did he fit into what his twin was complaining about?

"What are you talking about? What does Nathan Petrelli have to do with me?!"

The doppelganger scoffed and smirked, shaking its head and while doing so…everything around the man seemed to quiver and shift. Before Sylar's eyes, he changed into a very different man. A little shorter, in a gray suit, hair parted to the side…a reptilian look in his eyes.

"Because he's our 'in'. In the world I came from…he was nearly killed and placed in the hospital. I took his place shortly after his recovery and his subsequent re-entry into the world of politics. Mother always said that you could be president and in a manner of speaking…

The visage of Nathan Petrelli stepped forward and cocked his head to one side as he reached up and ran his fingers through Sylar's hair, their faces mere centimeters apart.

"…you do. After his landmark speech, Nathan easily slid right into the White House. The speech that let people know there were others out there…people with abilities far beyond the reach of God or science. And you use that knowledge to create a fear within the public that makes them follow you without question. You put in legislation to control them…to have your pick of them whenever you desire. Finally, you eliminate them and become the most…_special_ person there is."

Admittedly, the future-Sylar was stretching the truth of the last part. That was the plan, but interference of rebels such as Peter Petrelli made that rather difficult to accomplish. Nathan grinned slowly as he watched his younger self listen so attentively to his words. He took a step back and let Sylar down from the wall and back onto his feet again. Everything shifted and he looked like himself once more. With a brow raised he gave his younger self a little more information.

"Did I forget to mention that in my world, Dr. Suresh works very closely with Nathan Petrelli? _**Very**_…closely. A chief advisor on his staff, who follows his commands, defends him publicly…thinks highly of what he's doing."

Sylar glanced over and looked the future-Sylar directly in the eye.

"Mohinder…I have Mohinder too?"

Just as much a weakness for the man as he always was, the future-Sylar knew that little fact would pique his former self's interest more than just about anything else.

"Yes of course you do. You have so much…power and influence that one day you could wake up and become the God among mere mortals that only you could be, Gabriel. And he would worship at your feet…but we need to fix this. We need to make sure that you follow this path or you'll more than likely end up dead at Bennet's bullet."

To accentuate this point, the future-Sylar walked over to the corpse of the pryokinetic and telekinetically pulled a few fragments of shrapnel from his still heart. He held them in midair for a moment then dropped them to the ground, blood oozing away onto the dark pavement. Sylar watched them roll then stop and then glanced at Bennet. What would happen after all twelve were found and neutralized? It wouldn't be past the man to turn around and murder Sylar himself for overdue revenge on the attempt made on his daughter's life. But it was the thought of Mohinder…the man whom he still dreamed about at night…that he never stopped thinking about after their every all too brief encounter…that made him grin at his twin and raise both dark brows expectantly.

"What do you need me to do?"

A matching grin was his response as the doppelganger looked toward Bennet.

"Find out how Bennet is finding your intended targets…and use that resource to find Nathan Petrelli. Once you do, I'll work on keeping his brother away from him so that things won't get derailed again. In the meantime,…try not to be Bennet's bitch too much."

Sylar glowered at that little remark though it had more than a hint of truth to it. Thinking of what could be had him too excited to complain much internally as he went over and set his hand on his twin's shoulder.

"Done, I'll see you soon I'm sure."

His future self smirked and in the blink of an eye was gone, Sylar's hand falling through thin air and back to his side as the moment resumed.

"--You again. Understood?"

Sylar watched Bennet and nodded slowly as his thoughts reeled with what could be now that he had a goal once more.

"Of course, let me know when you find one."

With that, he turned and exited the alleyway, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. Every step he took, he felt as if he was being watched. That was because now he was…and would be until the timeline of the future of five years from then was fixed in Sylar's own favor. All it took was a message and now Sylar had found his purpose once more.


End file.
